LOVE

Whoops, I lied. THIS is the final blog post to cap off everything I've typed. :)

Look around the internet and you'll find all kinds of examples of people hating on Christians. My anonymous internet response to those people would be this: "You've got a negative perception of them, but look into the Bible itself. It contains the greatest example of love; and it's not a touchy-feely or flimsy example, either, if that's what you think that statement means. If you say you've studied it, can you tell me what the gospel is? What the terms mercy and grace mean? Stop having preconceived notions."
Read my post dealing with preconceived notions & hypocrisy.

Well, it's not exactly the #1 example of love anywhere in the world... If there was a positive integer before 1, the Bible would be THAT number of an example of love. So, if it's true, the gospel is simply the most wonderful news ever.

If I haven't been changed by the God of the Gospel, then all of my video gathering and information posting is just rooted in a cerebral pursuit and humanism: theology, Hebrew history, and the continuity of the Bible being genuinely interesting to me and fun to learn about, and then spreading the gospel online just in case it is true. Like I said, that's more of a humanitarian/humanist motivation than one of worship and obedience, the main drive for spreading the Gospel.

On the other hand, if I just happen to be such a new-born spiritually that I don't have assurance about the truth yet, then my online Good News spreading is something being caused by the spirit of God inside me.

If the first is true and the Bible is true, then that's more confirmation that God will even use the mouth of a donkey. But if the first is true and the Bible isn't true, then more people will just have the hugest example of sacrificial love as something to follow and learn from. (But if there is no theistic God then why would feelings and actions, such as love and sacrifice, logically matter at all? What's the grounding? See my post below dealing with the deistic god and Ravi Zacharias' lectures on worldviews, morality, and the origin of human worth.)
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Getting a full understanding of the Gospel out there would hopefully get rid of most of what I like to call "unicorn objections." Those are objections people make to the Bible's validity that are easily debunked. Like the fact that the Bible mentions unicorns. That's only because of English translation in the 1600s; the ancient Hebrews were writing about rhinos or some other creature and had no idea about the mythical European one-horned horse (source). Another example is when people pull out verses without the cultural, spiritual, and/or textual context:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matt. 10:34

Look at the rest of the passage; immediately afterwards, Jesus continues:

"For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law..."

speaking about the persecution of believers – not the advocation of slaughtering unbelievers, which would be murder. Elsewhere, he says "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name..." And don't forget "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword."

The Bible wasn't written in verses! Those were added for easy reference. That little piece of information should also help out all those heath & wealth preachers. (Speaking of those verse-twisting televangelist teachings, probably about 80% of TBN's content is anti-Bible or non-Christian: www.bit.ly/love-truth).

With all of that said, there are even some really good and sound answers to the hard questions. Check out the quote from James MacDonald in my "Skepticism" post and John Dickson's lecture on Theocratic Judgement and other violence in the Old Testament. (Scattered in various nations and under various governments, Christians have no authority to carry out any form of sentencing – they are to be simply Gospel preachers and walking descriptions of the beatitudes.)

So, let me end with a couple of GREAT Gospel-themed videos and an encouragement to study everything I posted. Be sure to double-check, triple-check, and centuple-check my stuff for accuracy using quality sources.

 The Law of God (Matthew 5:17)

start at the 2:38 time mark or the beginning of the video

 

Taking the Bullet

main scene at the 8:20 time mark

 

The REAL Story of Christmas

 

 What Does It Mean To Be a Christian?

It's Only Good News to a Needy Person

"Crucifixion" by Nikolai Ge - public domain
For many, this would lead to death by asphyxiation.
According to the video above,
it was more than just physical in this case.

Facts vs Feelings




Information From http://carm.org/religion-cause-war

What people need to do is divorce themselves from false "truisms" that they happily embrace to support their opinions/feelings. There is tons of information out there to access and research, and any conclusions should come from facts and not feelings. Sentimentality doesn't determine what's true or not, either. Objectivity all around.

When it comes to study, learn what you're arguing for and what you're arguing against.

So, yes, religion does cause battles and war and genocide – but less than 7%. Dogma in general causes those things, and it doesn't have to be religious dogma; just look at Stalin and Hitler. According to the Bible, the gospel (what Jesus did for murders and all kinds of sinners) causes less violence in the world not more; that's in terms of changing people and making them sin less – the persecutors who aren't changed are gonna ramp up the violence toward believers.

Hitler was a syncretist who imprisoned gospel-preaching pastors and had not the slightest problem with racial extermination.

So try to find a real Christian. See how they're like and find out why. Their profession should be considered "likely true" based on their theology, and it is because of their theology that they are peculiar – that they are the way they are.

[Read the posts above and below to learn what the gospel is – to study that theology.]

THE END

Another edit/addition:
This illustration popped in my mind today regarding the objection "People have Murdered in the name of God!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_69VqyTIgzA)

Ronald Reagan was shot in the name of Jodie Foster.
Hinckley is the one who sent him to the hospital – a deranged man wanting to get her attention.
Did she call for that attempted murder? No.
Was she in cahoots with Hinckley? No.
Were they even involved with each other in any way? No.

P.S. Here's a lecture on violence in the Bible and Church History: Part 1 - Part 2
A letter to Dr. James White from a fair deist or atheist: http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php/2008/10/25/you-never-know-who-is-listening-and-watching/
A lecture on not mixing opposing worldviews: here  
And a lecture on defining tolerance rightly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyTa5r4GG4M&list=PL5D2071851931F4FF